North & Central America and Caribbean

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Last reviewed: 04 June 2009

Country information

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HISTORY

St Vincent was originally settled around 5,000 BC by the Ciboney people, then by the Arawaks and subsequently by the warlike Caribs. The island was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1498 who named it St Vincent. The Caribs of St Vincent, living in the densely forested mountainous interior, were able to resist European settlement for longer than any other island in the Caribbean.

In 1675 a Dutch ship carrying African slaves was shipwrecked to the south of the island. The slaves reached land and intermarried with the local population producing a mixed-race Black Carib community. A rebellion by the Black Caribs in 1795/96 succeeded in gaining control of most of the island, but was eventually suppressed. Most of the Black Caribs were deported in 1797 to the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. Their descendants now form the Garifuna community of Belize. Smaller groups of Black Caribs remain in St Vincent and are concentrated in the north-east of the island.

Granted by Charles I to the Earl of Carlisle in 1627, the islands were disputed between Britain and France but were finally ceded to Britain in 1783. The islands had a plantation economy based on slave labour and producing sugar, cotton, coffee and cocoa. As in the rest of the British Caribbean, slavery was abolished in 1834. The islands have been subject to natural disasters caused by hurricanes and volcanic eruptions. The eruption of La Soufriere in 1902 devastated the north of St Vincent killing 2,000 people. Internal self-government was granted in 1969 and St Vincent and the Grenadines attained independence within the Commonwealth in 1979.

BBC News Country Timeline: St Vincent and the Grenadines